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ETHICAL ADDRESSES 



SERIES V. No. 9. NOVEMBER, 1898. 



A Nkw^ Nattion 

AND A Nbv^^ Duty 



BY 



.3^*' 



WILLIAM M; SALTER. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch Street. 

Published Monthly (except July and August.) 

(Entered at Philadelphia as second-class matter.) 

Yearly, 50 cts. Single Numbers, 5 cts. 






ETHICAL ADDRESSES. 

FIFTH SERIES-1898. 



Subscription., SO Cents a. year. 
Single iMvambers, 5 Cents. 



JANUARY.— The Ethical Culture Society as tlie Meeting- GroniHl 
of (ientiles and Jews, Feux Adler. 

FEBRUARY.— What is of Permanent Value in the Bible (The 
Old Testament) 1 Wm. M. Saeter. 

MARCH.— Wliat is of Permanent Value in the Bible (The New 
Testament) 'I Wm. M. Salter. 

APRIL.— The Punishment of Children, Felix Adler. [Appeii 
dix, The German Ethical Societies, by F. IV. Foersterl. 

MAY.— The Punishment of Ciiildren (Concluded), Felix Adler. 

JUNE.— Tlie Ethics of tlie War with Spain, S. Burns Weston. 

SEPTEMBER.— I. Tlie Plan of an Ethical Sunday Sdiool, W. 

L. Sheldon. 

OCTOBER.— II. The Plan of an Etiiical Sunday School, W. 

Iv. Sheldon. 

NOVEMBER— A NeM Natiim and a New Duty, Wm. M. Salter. 

Subscriptions may be paid to the Librarians at the Sunday morning 
meetings of the Ethical Societies, or sent by mail to 

S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch St., Philadelphia. 






Declaration of the United States Congress, April, i8g8 : 

" The United States hereby disclaims any disposition to exer- 
cise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island [Cuba], 
except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, 
when t"at is accomplished, to leave the government and control 
of the island to its people." 

Charles D. Sigsbee, Captain of the ''Maine,'' at the Jubi- 
lee Banquet, Chicago, October ig, i8g8 : 

"I suppose it will be expected that I shall say something 
about the ' Maine,' but I shall not say much. I will only say, since 
I am a very interested man, that it accords perfectly with my 
sentiments that the issue of the ' Maine' was not used as a political 
cause of war. I have too high an opinion of my own country, 
its education and its good intention, to wanf to go to war for re- 
venge. We shall all of us live to see the day when we shall 
thank God that the policy of this war has been directed in the 
right channel. We have heard a great deal about the sentiment, 
' Remember the "Maine."' I trust that the 'Maine' always 
will be remembered in the right senriment, in the right way, but 
never for revenge. A nation may go to war to punish, but never 
to revenge — not this nation. There is a general behef through- 
out the country that our fleets and vessels have gone into action 
flying the signal 'Remember the "Maine."' It is absolutely 
untrue. No vessel of any fleet or squadron of the United States 
has gone into this war flying the official signal ' Remember the 
" Maine." ' I, as captain of the ' Maine,' glory in it." 

President McKinley at the Jubilee Banquet, Chicago, 
October ig, i8g8 : 

"With no feeling of exultation, .but with profound thankful- 
ness, we contemplate the events of the past five months. They 
have been too serious to admit of boasting or vainglorification. 
They have been so full of responsibilities, immediate and pros- 

1183) 



pective, as to admonish the soberest judgment and counsel the 
most conservative action. This is not the time to fire the imag- 
ination, but rather to discover in calm reason the way to truth 
and justice and right, and when discovered to follow it with fidel- 
ity and courage, without fear, hesitation or weakness. 

' ' The war has put upon the nation grave responsibilities. 
Their extent was not anticipated and could not have been well 
foreseen. We cannot escape the obligations of victory. We 
cannot avoid the serious questions which have been brought 
home to us by the achievements of our arms on land and sea. 
We are bound in conscience to keep and perform the covenants 
which the war has sacredly sealed with mankind. Accepting 
war for humanity's sake, we must accept all obligations which 
the war in duty and honor imposed upon us. The splendid vic- 
tories we have achieved would be our eternal shame and not our 
everlasting glory, if they led to. the weakening of our original 
lofty purpose or to the desertion of the immortal principles on 
which the national government was founded and in accordance 
with whose ennobling spirit it has ever since been faithfully 
administered. 

" The war with Spain was undertaken not that the United 
should increase its territory, but that oppression at our very 
doors should be stopped. This noble sentiment must continue 
to animate us, and we must give to the world the full demonstra- 
tion of the sincerity of our purpose. 

" Duty determines destiny. Destiny which results from 
duty performed may bring anxiety and perils, but never failure 
and dishonor. Pursuing duty may not always lead by smooth 
paths. Another course may look easier and more attractive, but 
pursuing duty for duty's sake is always sure and safe and 
honorable." 



(1S4) 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY.* 

BY WILLIAM M. SALTER. 

A FEW months ago this nation, unable to contain any 
longer its indignation at the incomjDetence and inhuman- 
ity of Spanish rule in Cuba, took up arms against Spain. 
It was in itself an ennobling act. Those who believed 
in peace under all circumstances might not feel this, and 
also those who felt obliged to be cynical in interpreting 
the motives of the nation ; f but for the mass of the peo- 
ple, whose hearts had begun to burn within them at a 
spectacle of wrong so nigh our doors, it was a moment 
of exaltation when the decision was reached to put an 
end to it. A Harvard professor^'; has called this an in- 
glorious war. But if one will use words with that nice 
precision which may be expected from a university pro- 
fessor, it is the one glorious war in the nation's history. 
The war with Mexico was shameful — whatever its re- 
sults. The Revolutionary War and the War for the 
Union were at best necessary. But this war was to 



*A Lecture before the Society for Ethical Culture of Chicago, m 
Steinway Hall, Saturday, Oct. 23d, 1898. 

t I mean those who urged that selfish commercial interests were at the 
Ixjttom of the war. I do not deny that these played their part, but it was 
a subordinate one. The fact must not be forgotten that it was just such 
commercial centers as New York and Boston that particularly opposed the 
Mar, so far as opposition was made anywhere. This was a war of the 
common people, with old-fashioned American ideas about " liberty " and 
"oppression." They were first really awakened by Senator Proctor's 
revelations. 

J Professor Charles Kliol Norton. 

(185) 



1 86 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

break the chains that fettered another people. It was 
not necessary for us— and if "glory" ever applies to 
our poor human actions, it does to one like this. 

Our action has brought its consequences — not only 
without, but within. The pulses of the nation beat 
more quickly than before. Not for nothing is the en- 
thusiasm, or even the frothy patriotism. Where there 
is froth there is generally ferment below. There is a 
new national sense — I mean a new sense that we are a 
nation. From acting as a great organized body we 
have come to feel anew that we are members of that 
body. Not as individuals, but in our corporate capacity 
as the nation we took up the Cuban cause, planted the 
flag on Santiago's heights and far across the seas. 
Dewey, Hobson, Schley, Sampson, Roosevelt, Wood, 
Capron, the living and the dead, acted for you and me 
— or rather, not for you and me, but for all conceived of 
as that great unity we call the American State. Who 
has not followed the fortunes of his country during the 
last four months ? Who has not been alternately lifted 
with admiration and humbled with shame as he has 
heard of the brave exploits of our soldiers and sailors, 
and on the other hand of the miserable failures of the 
War Department to care for our sick and dying, owing 
in no small measure to the spoils system, that still lingers 
and festers in our body politic as an unclean thing ? 

And now the question is. What shall the nation do in 
the face of the new and unexpected situation in which it 
finds itself placed ? We have broken the power of 
Spanish arms in distant islands of the East and in Porto 
Rico, as well as Cuba. Once in the war it was but 
natural and necessary that we should assail the enemy 
wherever we could. Had a decisive battle been fought 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 1 8/ 

at once on Cuban soil the war would have ended. The 
island would have been set free, and as soon as its 
people had set up an orderly government, our respon- 
sibilities would have ceased. A question of the Phil- 
ippines and Porto Rico would not have arisen. But 
fate or Providence (to use pictorial terms) would have it 
otherwise. It was not deemed wise to attack the Span- 
ish citadel in Cuba — Havana — at the outset, and while 
those in control were making up their mind where else 
on the island to strike a blow, the guns of Dewey 
sounded in Manila Bay. In course of time came the 
victory at Santiago — close following, the occupation of 
Porto Rico. When, therefore, the peace negotiations 
were begun, the entire West Indian possessions of Spain 
were in American hands, and the Philippine Islands (or 
the most important of them) were virtually, if not actu- 
ally, in the same condition. This was the new situa- 
tion that confronted us. What should we do with 
these unexpected fruits of victory ? 

Two observations here occur to me. The first is that 
the very fact we raise the question, that the whole 
country is raising it, that it is being considered, pon- 
dered over, by so many minds, shows that the world (or 
a part of it) has reached a new stage in moral evolution. 
Customarily, in the history of the race, such a question 
as I have raised answers itself What a people wins, 
that it keeps. Conquest gives right. Alexander, Caesar, 
Napoleon, would have considered themselves fools not 
to hold all they could get. But we are forced to ques- 
tion. And it is our consciences that force us. 

The other observation is that the Chief Magistrate of 
this nation gave us the right point of view when he de- 
clared only the other night in Chicago, "Duty determ- 



l88 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

ines destiny." There is an irresponsible way of looking 
at men and events. People say — have said more or less 
in all periods of history — things are going so and so, 
and we can't help it. They fold their arms ; they have 
no opinions ; they acquiesce. Far be it from me to con- 
tend that the human will can control everything ; yet 
the area of human liberty is large, and to say that in 
this present juncture there is any " manifest destiny" 
controlling us, that we cannot have our thoughts of 
what is best, that these thoughts, according as they are 
clear and strong, cannot have power, and that every one 
as an individual, and as an individual among individuals, 
cannot help decide what the issue shall be, seems to me 
to be sinking into a fatalism worthy only of Orientals. 
"Duty determines destiny" is a braver word. It is, 
indeed, a sublime saying, worthy of the head of a free and 
mighty people. It calls us to ourselves — it clears the at- 
mosphere — it is an appeal to the intellect and conscience 
of the people to take the rudder and not allow the ship 
of state to helplessly drift as wind and wave determine. 
Putting our conscience, then, to work, what can we 
say ? My hearers, I will not conceal from you at the 
outset my conviction thatthere is nothing else at bot- 
tom for this nation to do than to keep on the same ex- 
alted levels of sentiment to which we rose at the begin- 
ning of the war. Not for conquest, but to extend the 
bounds of human liberty, did the nation call its sons 
from their homes and firesides and ask them to risk 
their lives in battle. To conquer Cuba, or to annex her, 
you could not have raised a regiment. To win oppor- 
tunities for trade in the Philippines, you could have 
found few to fight (outside, of course, professional sol- 
diers, and those poor wretches who, such are the cir- 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 1 89 

cumstances, will do anything to get a crust of bread). 
The spirit of the spring time in our national awakening 
we must keep on to its riper autumn days. " Tell him 
when he is a man to reverence the dreams of his youth," 
once said Schiller ; and the charge is to nations as well 
as individuals. The critical problem, I make bold to 
say, for America now, is whether in the flush of success, 
in the exaltation of victory, it can still remember the 
inspiration that visited it at the start, and keep that ex- 
alted mood, nobler than the exaltation of victory, that 
makes nations capable of sacrifices and of heroic tasks. 

At the outset, then, I submit this proposition : It is 
impossible for the American nation to enter on a career 
of conquest — impossible, that is, and have any of the 
American spirit survive. You may extend the Amer- 
ican body, but you kill the American soul. An ambi- 
tious, self-seeking, unscrupulous republic will sow the 
seeds of its own downfall. America can choose its 
course, but if it chooses the wrong one. its doom is 
sealed. 

Putting conquest, lust of dominion, and mere pride 
of bigness out of our minds, what then ? What, if we 
must ask, as to Cuba herself? To this question, the 
only answer is a simple one : If there is any honor in 
this nation — I do not say elevation of mind, but simply 
honor — we must keep our word, and leave Cuba, now 
that we have freed her, to determine her own destiny, 
only making sure that in the meantime disorder does 
not rule there. How long before a properly constituted 
and really representavive government can arise in that 
long unhappy island remains to be seen. It may be a 
short time, it may be a considerable period. No rea- 
sonable person can construe our pledges to mean that 



190 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

we must withdraw at once, whatever the practical an- 
archy into which the country might be thrown. In the 
interregnum between the old Spanish rule and the new 
self-rule we have rather the duty to see that life and 
property are protected — if need be, to protect them 
ourselves. The Cubans could not have freed them- 
selves ; they perhaps cannot at once rule themselves. 
We should stand to them as a strong elder brother, 
ready to help, to counsel, but with no selfish thoughts 
in our minds, helping only to make them capable of 
self-help. We should do this without fee or thought of 
reward. If we were ready to risk the lives of our sons 
in an effort to make them free, and openly declared that 
no thought of national aggrandizement was in our 
minds, we can surely give them some unbought 
thought and time and energy in the task of setting up 
a free, orderly and responsible government.* Do not 
call these Utopian suggestions. There are few elements 
in Cuba that will not recognize our disinterestedness if 
we show it. Brotherliness need not be officiousness. 
Every thoughtful Cuban must recognize that unless the 
Spaniards leave the island eii masse the task of estab- 
lishing political institutions representing the whole peo- 
ple is immense — and those who are not thoughtful will 
not resent our temporary offices, if we discharge them 
not only with firmness but with equal consideration to 
all concerned. Any contempt for the nativ^e Cubans or 
any part of the population is sure to work harm. True, 

* By this I do not mean that the mere expenses of our temporary occu- 
pation may not be borne out of Cuban revenues. Nor by emphasizing the 
fact that we did not go into the war for gain do I mean that we may not 
have a rightful claim to indemnity from Spain for the mere money cost of 
the war. Should we waive a claim, this would be out of magnanimity, 
BOt from right. 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. IQI 

we were disappointed at the numbers of the Cuban 
forces during the war, and we may be still more dis- 
appointed at the political capacity of parts of the popu- 
lation now. Tyranny has done its work — but the more 
occasion for patience, benevolence and emancipating 

justice from us. 

" Work and despair not." 

This line of Goethe's is the word for the nation. 
What we can do for Cuba is shown in what General 
Wood is already doing in Santiago. During our tem- 
porary occupancy we can set an example of just and 
humane government that the Cubans in their own inter- 
est will hardly fail to remember. But if we are in Cuba 
to rule, or, if in the course of time, tendencies to rule 
develop in our administration, if schemes of favoritism 
to this party or that or to this American syndicate or 
that begin to disclose themselves, or if plans of annex- 
ation begin to be laid, then we shall be laying up trouble 
not only for the natives, but for ourselves — and the 
whole world will have a right to jeer at free America, 
Fancy a situation in which we should be ourselv^es 
fighting the Cubans, fancy us calling them rebels — be- 
cause, forsooth, they wished to rule themselves ! 
Twould be a sight to make the heavens weep. Ah, 
friends, we have a trust, you and I have a trust, b}^ voice 
and pen, to forfend such a fearful possibility. 

But the critical question is, What is the right attitude 
for this nation to take toward Porto Rico and the Philip- 
pines ? I ta^e/oj- g-ranUc/ that the nation has not for- 
gotten and will not forget its solemn pledge to Cuba. 
Evidently our honored Chief Magistrate has no notion 
of forgetting ; the Peace Commission in Paris bases our 
refusal to assume the Cuban debt in part upon the fact 



192 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

that we claim no sovereignty there ; and not a party- 
platform nor a prominent public man has ventured to 
suggest that we go back on our pledges. But the ques- 
tion of Porto Rico and the Philippines is an open one* — 
and, just because it is, the fineness of the nation's tem- 
per will be judged by the way it deals with it. We have 
no literal pledges, we shall be judged by our spirit. 
Shall we keep what we have gained ?t 

If the question were an abstract one, if we left out of 
account specific circumstances, the honorable instinct, 
it seems to me, would be, inasmuch as we did not go 
into this war for conquest or for pelf, to restore these 
possessions to their original owner — in any case not to 
keep them for ourselves. This is not the way of the 
world ; but, then, to wage war with the sole motive of 
setting another people free is not the way of the world 
— and to work for freedom and for profit is an inhar- 
monious mixture. 

In this connection my mind reverts to a legendary 
incident in the history of ancient Israel. That power- 
ful sheikh, Abraham (so the story goes), hearing that 
the King of Sodom had been worsted in a battle with 
some neighboring kings, and that his own kinsman, 
Lot, a subject of the King of Sodom, had been cap- 
tured along with the rest, bore down one night with his 



* It may be said that as to Porto Rico the question is closed by virtue 
of tlie instructions given to our Peace Commissioners. But nothing is 
really settled till Congress acts. Hence there is an interval for public 
opinion to form itself. 

t To be accurate, this is the way the question must be put. Not, .Shall 
we grab ? but, Shall we keep what we already have ? So far as I know 
no question of giabbing is now before the American public (there may 
have been before the annexing of Hawaii, and there may be in the fu- 
ture, if the jingoes get the upper hand among us — but there is not now). 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 1 93 

armed men upon the hostile kings, and rescued not only 
Lot. but the goods and the men of the King of Sodom, 
too. The King of Sodom appeared before him shortl}', 
and requested simply the return of his men, and said 
that Abraham should keep the goods as the natural 
trophies of his victory. But Abraham replied, " I 
raise my hand to Yahweh, the highest God, maker of 
heaven and earth, and swear that I will take nothing of 
what is yours, not a thread or a shoe-latchet." He had 
done a generous act ; he scorned to profit by it. The 
spirit of that old legendary hero is the .spirit for all time. 
As a Senator from this Commonwealth said a month ago 
(and I hope he will not forget it), if we are to be good 
Samaritans, it does not become us to carry a bag on 
our backs wherein to deposit the profits of our holy 
calling.''' I am not now saying just what we should do, 
but if we fail to act in this spirit, if, having gone into 
this war for freedom we come out of it for conquest, we 
prove ourselves after all to be what Napoleon contempt- 
uously called the English, "a nation of shop-keepers," 
not of men — yes, worse, of hypocrites, a charge rarely 
set down against blunt, bluff Englishmen. 

Should we then return Porto Rico and the Philippines 
to Spain ? If Spain were a colonial power like Eng- 
land. I think the answer would be, yes. But there's 
the crux. I do not wish to say injurious words against 
the Spanish people — they belong to the brotherhood of 
man ; but no one, not even Spaniards themselves, will 
defend the methods of Spanish rule. Until there is a 
political rebirth in Spain, it is hard to believe in her 
competency to rule a colony. This was the fatuousness 

* Senator W. E. Mason, as reported in the Boston Ei'ening Transcript, 
Sept. 26th, 1898. 



194 -^ ><'EW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

of those who wanted our government to wait last spring, 
and let the new policy of autonomy in Cuba be tried. 
It was a sham autonomy, and those who had their eyes 
open and were not guided by sentiment, knew it. The 
simple fact is that official Spain has not the will and has 
scarcely the mind to rule in accordance with modern 
ideas. Much of Spain's best blood was long ago win- 
nowed out as if it had been chaff by religious fanaticism. 
It is a depleted stock. The best friends of Spain will 
wish her to concentrate herself on the work of interior 
purification and leave for the time world-tasks alone. 
America has done a service to humanity and progress 
in causing her dead hand to be lifted from her colonies, 
from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific. Misrule may 
not have been so bad in Porto Rico as elsewhere, and 
yet the Porto Ricans seemed to have greeted our armies 
when they landed there as they would an emancipator. 
How any one, indeed, can propose to return the terri- 
tory in question to Spain, with whatever asseverations 
and promises of amendment on her part, passes my com- 
prehension ; it would be to turn the hands backward on 
the dial of time. They are free — let them stay free. 

To my mind, the United States should take the same 
attitude to them as to Cuba. Let us be to them not a 
ruler, but a deliverer — and a friend. Let us, if necessary, 
maintain order till they prove capable of maintaining 
order themselves — and then let them rule themselves, 
be masters of their own destiny, we withdrawing our 
protecting hand, as England did from the Ionian isles 
in the middle of the century. We are not bound by the 
letter of the law to act in this way, but only in this way 
are we in harmony with the spirit which animated us at 
the start. Technically we are free to do otherwise, to 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 1 95 

annex and to keep ; morally and in honor we are bound. 
In making war on Spanish rule in Cuba, we solemnly 
declared that no thought of self-interest was in our 
minds — and to say now, " No, we make no conquests in 
Cuba, but we do elsewhere," is much like quibbling. 
This is not the way to make the name of America hon- 
ored in the world. But to set Porto Rico free and to 
set the Philippines free is only to carry a step further our 
original mission ; we might not have done it, save in 
this unanticipated way, but doing it involves no violence 
either to the letter or the spirit of our first proposal.* 

Yet, I am not unaware that even the provisional duty 
I have suggested goes beyond what many will allow. 
It does mean a measure of responsibility — and some 
will say we should take no responsibilities outside our 
own borders, or at least that we have saddled a sufficient 
number of them upon our shoulders in taking temporary 
charge of Cuba. I have parted company with the Im- 
perialists (if that word has any definite meaning, and I 
am not sure that it has) ; but there are those on the 

* In the above argument I leave to one side the question whether these 
islands might be kept by us on the ground of a rightful claim on our part 
to an indemnity of some sort for the money expenses of the war. If the 
islands should be retained in this way, the reasons would be totally differ- 
ent from those arising out of the "right of conquest." It is only motives 
and principles that I am discussing in this lecture — and motives and prin- 
ciples may powerfully determine not only the complexion but the very na- 
ture of facts in the long run. At the same time I incline to the view that 
magnanimity is the true policy in dealing with the question of indemnity, 
smd that our relation to Porto Rico and the Philippines should be deter- 
mined (as urged above) by considerations of duty rather than of interest, 
however natural and legitimate, humanly speaking, considerations of in- 
terest may be deemed to be. In formulating the general view of the text 
I wish to express obligations to a high-minded statement by my old 
teacher, Professor John W. Burgess, in the Chicago Recoi-d, August 13th, 
l8q8. 



196 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

other hand who say we have enough problems at home, 
who point to all the manifest abuses in our politics and 
our industrial life, and urge the setting our own house 
in order before we undertake to help others in doing the 
same. The logic of this would have forbade meddling 
with Cuba, save in so far as it was a nuisance at our 
doors and the disorder affected our own interests. And, 
if we were where we were six months ago and the ab- 
stract question were before us, Shall we go out and free 
Porto Rico and the Philippines, and help the peoples 
upon them to self-rule ? no one can doubt what the 
answer would be — just as no one can doubt what the 
answer would be to a proposal to embark on the 
general task of liberating and educating sav^age peoples 
now. The trouble is. we have broken the Spanish 
power in those islands already, and are in possession of 
them ; the question is not, Shall we go to them ? but. 
Shall we leave them? Whether we are badly off at 
home or not, there we are — and the situation hardly 
leaves us free to do altogether as we choose. Every 
one will say, if we leave, it is only with one of three al- 
ternatives — either to turn the islands back to Spain, or 
to intrust the interests of order to some other Power, or 
to leave the islands in complete independence. And if 
the first and third are out of the question (above all in 
relation to the islands most in dispute, the Philippines), 
then to what Power shall we intrust the keeping of 
order ? The only Power whom we could think of ask- 
ing, because the only Power that is liberal in spirit and 
acts on the principle of the " open door." is England. 
But would I'^ngland take the Philippines — not to rule, 
but to prepare for self-rule ? There would be no ques- 
tion of duty in her case, as there is in ours — and it is 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 1 97 

likely she would only takes the Philippines as a colony. 
But, in whatever way she took them, every one who 
knows the European political situation at the present 
time must admit that the taking of them would in all 
likelihood bring on a European war. The only Power 
that can hold the Philippines now, whether to keep as a 
colony or to provisionally maintain order in and edu- 
cate, is America. 

One of the greatest statesmen England ever had, one 
of the few to whom the world still goes for wisdom, 
Edmund Burke, said: "The situation of a man is the 
preceptor of his duty." The same is true of nations. 
Considerations that determine duty in one situation fail 
of application in another. What is duty here and now, 
in these existing complications of fact? This is the 
only way to get duty at all. All else is abstractions — 
abstractions, it may be, very well worth considering, like 
those of my honored colleague, Dr. Adler, in the last 
International Journal of Ethics, but still abstractions, 
because they do not visualize (to use a rather barbarous 
technical word), concretely picture, the existing situa- 
tion. Dr. Adler might say all that he does (and on 
general principles I should say nearly all of it after 
him), and yet admit that the American authority being 
planted in Manila and the facts in regard to Spain and 
in regard to Europe and in regard to the insurgents 
being of the peculiar sort they are, there is no honor- 
able way out for America save to stay and to maintain 
order and to gradually educate the natives, with the 
distinct object in mind of making them finally a self- 
governing people. Grant that aristocratic England 
might do better than we are likely to do at first, grant- 
ing even that there would be a danger to democratic 



198 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

institutions in having anything to do politically with 
inferior races (which in fact I could not at all admit in 
reference to such a species of protectorate as I am now 
advocating), granting further that the cause of social 
reform might temporarily suffer among us (which, how- 
ever, I do not think would be the case), granting still 
other untoward possibilities, which after all would be 
only possibilities — yet the question is, and cannot be 
put by, What are we to do now in face of the definite 
facts that confront us, and of the responsibilities that 
inevitably grow out of those facts ? One palpable 
immediate duty is worth a dozen possibilities, and as 
for the problems that often arise for men and nations in 
the pathway of duty, and that may gather thick and 
make the way dark at times for us in the future, I like 
to think of an old Biblical saying, in which John Bright 
used to take comfort, that "to the upright there ariseth' 
hght in the darkness," and also of what the Chief Mag- 
istrate of this nation said the other night, " Destiny that 
results from duty performed may bring anxiety and 
perils, but never failure or dishonor." * 

As matter of fact and in calm reason, what do the 
difficulties amount to that are urged against such a 
course as I have proposed ? The real difficulties are 
against a course of conquest and forcible annexation — 
i. €., against "Imperialism" (if this is the meaning of 
the word). About this I have already delivered myself 
with probably sufficient distinctness. Yet some of the 

* If the question were one of embarking on a colonial policy simply 
from considerations of national interest, apart from any pressure of duty, 
1 should think most of Dr. Adler's argument quite pertinent. The 
advantage of colonies to America may be seriously questioned. See Mr. 
Br>'ce's thoughtful article in Harper" s Magazine for September on that 
phase of the subject. 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. igg 

objections to Imperialism equally apply to a policy of 
temporary Protectorates such as I have suggested. 
This, too, would undoubtedly involve us in increased 
military and naval expenditure, though it must be said 
that far heavier taxation than we now have could be 
easily borne if it were rightfull}' apportioned. This, 
too, would involve the possibility of our being drawn 
into the complications of European politics — ?'. r., of 
being a Power among the Powers of the great world, in- 
stead of a nation set off here altogether by ourselves. 
If we could in honor avoid this, for a little longer space, 
I for one should be glad ; and if peaceably England 
could be given in charge of the Philippines, the respite 
could be had. I think few Americans 2fa/if the Philip- 
pines, except traders, who could in any case trade as 
freel}^ under the British flag as under the American. 
And yet, sooner or later, so small is the world becom- 
ing, we shall be a Power among the Powers anyway. 
We might as well begin to learn the arts of diplomacy 
now. We cannot forever plead )'Outh and inexperience 
as a reason for being allowed to grow undisturbed, 
quietly, in a corner. Already we are not weak, and we 
are not incapable, and we really belong to the family of 
nations, and the great world-problems, including the 
problems of " inferior races," are for us to solve as well 
as them. It is said, democracies are not as fitted to be 
as helpful in this particular way as aristocracies or mon- 
archies. Democracies are based on the principle of 
self-rule ; they are b\' nature unfitted to rule others — so 
the argument goes. What a satire on democracy ! 
We ordinarily think that a man who rules himself is 
fitted on this very account to exercise wise management 
over others. If so of an individual, wh}' not of a 



200 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

people ? And if the final destiny of the so-called 
" inferior races " is self-rule, who so adapted to conduct 
them to this goal as those who believe in self-rule 
themselves ? True, democratic theories must not be 
visionary ; they must recognize gradations of human 
progress. Because all men are equal in certain respects, 
it does not necessarily follow that they are in all ; de- 
mocracy need not be quite lacking in practical sense. 
As I understand essential democracy, it is a working 
principle for some and a faith for all ; and the faith has 
never been better expressed than in the language of a 
great German, Alexander von Humboldt : " There are 
some races more cultured and advanced than others ; 
more ennobled by education. But there are no races 
more noble than others. All are equally destined for 
freedom." This is the great essential idea that democ- 
racy — may I not proudly say American democracy ? — 
is to carry to the world. If we accept our charge in 
the Philippines (supposing we find we cannot commit it 
to any otherj, if we accept it in Porto Rico, if we accept 
it in Cuba, shall it not be everywhere alike, not to rule, 
save as a provisional passing necessity, but to educate, 
to elevate, to fit for self-rule? Oh, happy country, if 
thou shalt choose that course ! 

The one serious, immediate difficulty is, that we have 
no experience in doing this sort of work, that we have 
no machinery already devised for doing it, that we have 
no civil servants such as England has, that instead we 
have the spoils system still more or less in vogue, and 
that Manila and Porto Rico and Havana would only be 
fresh fields for us to batten in. At first sight it seems 
like folly to do what we are not prepared to do. But if 
we have to do a thing, we shall prepare ourselves. 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 20 1 

Happily we have already a start. The work will nat- 
urally fall largely at the beginning to the army and 
navy, and it is just in these branches of the public serv- 
ice that civil service principles have a hold — above all 
in the navy. Here promotion or advancement is based 
on seniority alone. When a vacancy occurs, it is stated, 
a captain steps from the head of his grade to the bottom 
of the list of commodores, and no official power can 
either retard or hasten his upward movement.* The 
system is not so rigid in the army, and "political pulls " 
are hence more or less in order — and the result is seen 
in the contrasted leaderships in the army and nav)- in 
the late war. The remedy is to make the army like the 
navy, and to make our whole civil service like both. 
We can do this if we will, and nothing is more likely to 
make us will than to take a new departure and to feel a 
new necessity. Sound civil service principles are mak- 
ing headway in the conmiunity every year anyway ; it 
is the set of the tide ; the spoils system demoralizes 
parties, it demoralizes individuals, it makes our manage- 
ment of the Indians a national disgrace — e\-en our prac- 
tical men among social reformers are beginning to see 
that there is little hope of social amelioration that does 
not begin with its abolition. With the army and navy, 
already more or less graded and disciplined, in the lead, 
we may hope that fresh demands arising from the neces- 
sities of a new situation will lead to an improved civil 
service for the country all along the line. Doubtless 
we shall show our inexperience and blunder more or 
less at the start ; doubtless we shall perfect our machin- 
ery gradually — but the simple injunction not to go into 
the water because we have not learned to swim will per- 
*So H. L. West in tlje Forum, Oct., 1898, p. I74- 



202 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

haps not be found much sager counsel now than ordi- 
narily in the past. Is it really necessary to say to our 
wiseacres that the only way to learn to do a thing is to 
do it — and that, according to all the laws of mathemat- 
ics, there must be a first time?* 

The bottom fact is, that what this country needs more 
than anything else is interest in public affairs. "Our 
politics have become sordid and corrupt chiefly because 
the general attention has been withdrawn from them."* 
One writer attributes this in part to the very fact of 
" our long freedom from entangling alliances, and our 
ability to conduct our affairs with little danger of col- 
lision with other powers. "t ^^'e have got easy-going 
and indifferent to purity and effectiveness in govern- 
mental administration. We think little of the nation 
and much of ourselves. It is possible that the new in- 
terest in national affairs, the new sense of the nation as 
such, the new attachment to it and glory in it, will be 
one of the levers by which the national life will be 
raised. Once before in America there was an " era of 
good feeling." It was after the assertion of the Monroe 
doctrine. A student of our history, and teacher in one 

* It may be said after these explanations tliat the plan of a protectorate 
differs after all not so widely from that of an actual colony, since govern- 
mental machinery of some sort must be used anyway. But all would de- 
pend on the purpose and ultimate motive lying back of the machinery. 
It would not do to say, the facts being the same, the motives would be in- 
different. Here the motives would in the end determine the fact. Under 
the colonial idea there would be an easy consciousness of possession from 
the very start ; under a protectorate there would never be a consciousness 
of possession, but rather the sense that some day, unless the unexpected 
happens, our duty would have an end. Taking down the flag would have 
as much honor as raising it, if it meant a duty done, a task disharged. 

* Professor John Bascom, quoted in City and State, Sept. 15, 189S. 
t Professor W. McDonald, in the f-'orum, Oct., 189S, p. 183. 



A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 203 

of our universities, has remarked that it is difficult for 
us now to picture to ourselves the enthusiasm aroused 
by the foreign policy of the early '20s ; the people ac- 
cepted the idea of leadership in American affairs, and 
even of a kind of" guardianship over the rights of the 
new world," and this deeply-rooted conviction gave a 
moral elevation and dignity to the political life of the 
Monroe administration which it has not again attained. 
It is the ideals of the nation, he concludes, after observ- 
ing ho\v futile have been the attempts in recent years to 
raise the level of our political life by appeals to the self- 
ish instincts — it is the ideals of the nation rather than 
the reason and calculation of the individual that consti- 
tute the source of civic strength and activity.* If this 
is true, those are making a sorr\- mistake who are pooh- 
poohing the new national feeling that is rising now. In 
the same elevation of mind with which the country 
went into the late war and is now beginning to contem- 
plate the novel responsibilities that have been thrust 
upon it, it may be led to face the problems that lie un- 
solved within its own borders. With the strength with 
which it equips itself for its tasks in Havana and Porto 
Rico and Manila, it may also assail misgovernment and 
set up decent and righteous government in Chicago and 
New York, in Springfield and Albany, and hunt the 
money-changers out of the temple in Washington it- 
self. It is seriousness, gravity, elevation, that the 
American people most need, the sense of something 
more than our own private selves and our own private 
tasks, the consciousness that we are parts of a greater 
stream and a greater life. A great nation — /. e., a nation 
with great tasks, and great-minded citizens go together ; 

* Dr. Leo S. Rovve, in Chicago Record, Aug. 26th, l{ 



204 A NEW NATION AND A NEW DUTY. 

if the national life is mean and paltry, do not expect the 
individual to make any sacrifice's for it. 

I see the signs of a new nation about me now — it is 
new because it has trusted its instincts and dared to sac- 
rifice for a sister people's liberty. The awakening is in- 
dissolubly bound up with its sense of the claims of hu- 
manity oui: and beyond its own territorial lines. Unex- 
pectedly and yet honorably it can serve the cause of 
humanity more widely yet. A new and larger duty 
than it first dreamed of thence confrons it. Not 
lightly, not vaingloriously, but gravely, humbly, I might 
almost say solemnly, when I recall the mood in which 
the President has spoken, I see the nation stepping for- 
ward to accept that duty. A flush is on its face, not the 
flush born of a consciousness of triumph, but the flush 
of ardent resoK^e, the flush of forward-looking expecta- 
tion, the flush of a youth who takes up a task that he 
knows will try his powers. Go on, brave heart, and 
never strike sail to a fear. Go on, 

"... and let thy Fortune be 
Forgotten in thy Destiny." 



Kthicai^ Addrkssks 

FIRST SERIES— 1894 

Contents: What Do We Stand For? by Felix Adler ; An Eth- 
ical View of Life, by \V. M. Salter ; What Does It Mean to 
Be Religious, and What is Religion? by W. L. Sheldon ; The 
Religion of Ethical Culture, by M. M. Mancasarian ; The 
Modern Saint, by Fellx Adler ; Morality — What Does It 
Mean ? by \V. M. Salter ; True Liberalism, by W. L. Sheldon ; 
Teaching and Teachers, by M. M. jNIancasarian ; Prayer and 
Worship, by Ffxix Adler ; The Highest Rule of Life, by 
W. M. Salter. 

SECOND SERIES— 1895 

What We Mean by Duty, W. L. Sheldon ; Our Besetting Sins, 
M. M. Mangasarian ; " Ethical Agnosticism," \Vm. M. Sai,ter ; 
Consolations, Felix Adllr ; Worship in the Spirit, W. L. 
Sheldon ; The Freedom of Ethical Fellowship, Felix Adler ; 
The Next Step in Christianity, Wm. M. Salter; "Ethics or 
Religion ? " W ^^ M. Salter ; The Four Types of Suffering, 
Fellx Adler ; Octavius B. Frothingham Memorial Exercises, 
Edmund C. Stedman, George Haven Putnam, Justice George 
C. Barrett and Prof. Felix Adler. 

THIRD SERIES-1896 

The Monroe Doctrine and the War Spirit in the United States, 
by FEiylx Adlicr ; The Venezuelan Question, by Wm. M. 
SAt,TER ; The New Woman, by W. L. Shhi^don ; Bad Wealth 
and How It Is Sometimes Got, by Wm. M. Sai^ter ; Address 
of May 15th, 1876, b\^ Felix Adter ; Twentieth Anniversary 
of the Society for Ethical Culture of New York, addresses by 
Alfred R. Woi^ff, Wm. M. Salter, M. M. Mangasarian 
raid Felix Adi^eR ; Armenia's Impending Doom, by M. M. 
Mangasarian ; The International Ethical Congress, by 
Felix Adler ; Woman's Influence in Public Affairs, by Mrs, 
Lydia Avery Coonley and Mrs. Mary J. Wilmarth ; Good 
and Bad Side of Novel Reading, by W. L. Sheldon. 

FOURTH SERIES-1897 

The Cause of Ethics, by W. M. Salter; Our Faith and Our Duty, 
by S. Pirns Weston ; How Far Does The Ethical Society Take 
the Place of a Church? by Felix Adler ; Vi/hatto Believe: An 
Ethical Creed ; by W. L. Sheldon; Moral and Spiritual Educa- 
tion of Children, W. Sankord Evans ; The Progress of the Eth- 
ical Movement, by F. W. Foerster ; The Justice of the Single 
Tax, by W. M. Salter; The Modern Attitude Toward Religion, 
by Prof. MiiuRis Jastrow ; Why Progress Is so Slow; Edward 
Bellamy Again, by W. P. SiiEinr.N ; Does Justice Triumph in 
the End? A Study of Shakespeare's " Lear," by W. L. Sheldon. 
Each Series, bound in fine cloth, 75 cents postpaid ; single numbers, 

5 cents. 

S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch St., Philadelphia. 



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F.THICAL SURVIVALS IN MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION. Jane Addams. 
THEORY AND PRACTICK. J. B. Baillik, Edinburgh University. 
THE ETHICAL MOTIVE. Franklin H. Giddings. Columbia University. 
SELF-REALIZATION AS A WORKING MORAL PRINCIPLE. Henry 

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THE NATIONAL ARBITRATION LAW. F. J. Stimson. Boston. 

THE BEARINGS OF PHILOSOPHY ON EDUCATION. J. S. Mackenzie 
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THE BROTHERS OF SINCERITY. • Thomas Davidson, New York. 

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DEFECTIVE CHILDREN: THEIR RIGHTS AND THEIR NEEDS. Mar- 
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SIDGWICK AND SCHOPENHAUER ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF MO- 
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OCTOBER NUMBER— Vol. IX, No. i. 

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS IN THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE 

UNITED STATES. Felix Adler, New York. 
A MORAL FROM ATHENIAN HISTORY. Bernard Bosanquet, London. 
BELLIGERENT DISCUSSION AND TRUTH-SEEKING. Richard C. Cabot. 

Boston. 

LUXURY AND EXTRyCVAGANCE. John Davidson, University of New Bnms- 

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